skatewash

You may wish to follow the linked advice. One place to check for price is the medisafe pharmacy (in Bangkok, but will ship via EMS, 40 baht) on facebook. Just tell them what you are looking for and ask for any generic prices as well. Use messenger/chat feature at the following site: https://www.facebook.com/Medisafe.Pharmacy.Rama4 Response typically within an hour during business hours.

The detailed daily schedule for the Phuket Vegetarian Festival 2022 has been published. 26 September - 4 October 2022 https://issuu.com/phuket.inzpire/docs/phuket_vegetarian_2022_eng_

Good tip on the 2 x 6-month (overlapping) bank statements if you are using Bangkok Bank as your retirement extension account.

That's an interesting question. physicaladdress.com is a Commercial Mail Receiving Agency (CMRA). When you sign up for the account you must submit a United States Postal Service (USPS) document that authorizes that CMRA to receive mail on your behalf. There is a list of CMRA addresses that is maintained by the USPS. Businesses can access this list to determine whether your address is a CMRA, which means it is not a residential address. I don't know of any CMRA (and there are lots of them) that doesn't work this way. They are merely complying with US postal regulations. Will it be accepted by banks and brokerages? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Depends entirely on how the bank or brokerage does their due diligence. It does not depend on which CMRA you use, they are all registered with the USPS in the same way. It depends on how rigorous the bank/brokerage will be. The trend is for them to become more rigorous so they satisfy Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations and other anti-money laundering regulations. That said, I was able to open a Charles Schwab Checking and Brokerage account from Thailand using only my US CMRA as my residence. This was about 8 years ago. I don't know whether that is still possible. CS could have detected that I was using a CMRA, but they didn't check. Maybe these days they do. Sometimes there is less rigor applied to changing your address on a financial account than there is when opening the account. For example, you may not be able to open an account using the CMRA as your residence. However, if you use a friend or family's actual residential address (which will not be a CMRA), have the account opened and then change the address to a CMRA, they may not do the same level of diligence as they would have if you had tried to open the account using that CMRA. All CMRAs have the same risk of being detected, whether they are detected depends entirely on whether the bank or brokerage wants to be rigorous about its due diligence. I see that physicalAddress.com says they use whole addresses: e.g., 99 Wall St. instead of the more usual CMRA address such as 99 Wall St., Suite #40020 If that's true then their address may appear more likely to be residential, and therefore maybe less likely to be checked in the USPS CMRA database, but if they were checked they would be found to be non-residential (CMRA) address.

Guide to the Vegetarian Festival (also known as the Nine Emperor Gods Festival) published by the Tourist Authority of Thailand every year about one week in advance of the festival. The guide doesn't load immediately but takes a minute or so. https://issuu.com/phuket.inzpire/docs/phuket_vegetarian_2022_eng_ In addition the Go Teng poles (tall poles found at almost all Chinese Shrines on Phuket) are raised the day before the festival begins 25 September (Sunday) and lowered the day after the festival ends on 5 October (Wednesday). The Go Teng poles are raised to allow the Nine Emperor Gods to descend to earth to participate in the festival. Generally, the raising occurs in the late afternoon as does the lowering. The lowering usually involves the burning of all the prayers made on paper used during the festival, it's usually a large bonfire. My experience in previous years is at the Kathu Shrine, but I believe any of the big shrines Jui Tui, Bang Liao, and many of the smaller shrines do the same. For those concerned with how the Nine Emperor Gods get back to heaven, they just sail away across the water after having been carried through the streets of Phuket Town accompanied by a huge quantity of firecrackers. The Phuket Town shrines finish at the Chinese Shrine at the end of Saphan Hin Park very late (midnight or so) on the last night of the festival 4 October (Tuesday).

Suggest you only ask for up to a 6 month bank statement for two reasons: You only really need to cover two (2) months for your first extension of stay application. Showing you have maintained at least 800k baht in the account for at least 2 months. Bangkok Bank (unlike other banks) has a problem providing bank statements longer than the last six month period while you wait. If you need more than six months your request is forwarded to Bangkok Bank headquarters and it can take up to a week for it to be sent to you. Six and fewer month statements can be produced by the branch.

What sort of paperwork do you have in your possession? In many (most) cases you would have been given a receipt (showing the date of administration, your name, an id number, lot and batch of vaccination, etc.) after you finished the waiting period for adverse reaction at the administration center where you had your jab. This could be upgraded to an official certificate, Thailand National Vaccination Certificate (or words to that effect) by going to the hospital that provided the staff for your vaccination location. This (the hospital in charge) was often announced at the waiting station after your vaccination. You could then go the hospital responsible for your vaccination location (in my case it was Chalong Hospital) and for a nominal fee (50 baht) you could have received the certificate mentioned above. Taking that Certificate and your passport to Phuket Ministry of Health in Phuket Town (corner of Narisson and Surin Roads in the government building section of Phuket Town) and they would give you a Yellow International Vaccination Certificate (booklet) with your jabs in it. Cost was 50 baht. Took a few days, you needed to return to pickup your yellow booklet. Also, there is a smart phone app call Mor Prom available for free download from for example the Play Store. You log into this app with your id number (starts with 6000000...., discussed in first paragraph). This lets you view your vaccination records and you can even request a Covid National Vaccination Certificate, that takes several days and appears on the MOPH website, which you can print out. This contains a CR Code that links to the MOPH vaccination information on the MOPH site. So a variety of avenues are open to you but all require the id number (60000.....) that you received during your vaccination. If you didn't receive such a number then perhaps you need to go to the hospital that staffed your vaccination center, and if you don't know that then go directly to the Phuket MOPH office mentioned in third paragraph above.

I was just curious what the requirement looks like in Chiang Mai. In Phuket where I get my retirement extension it has been Bank Letter, 12 Month Bank Statement, and signed copies of your passbook pages covering the last 12 months. This is for 800k baht in the bank method. I have heard that some immigration offices don't require the 12 Month Bank Statement signed/stamped by the bank as used to be the case in Phuket. Was just curious if Chiang Mai was one of those or not. From the two responses it sounds like they are moving to require the 12 Month Bank Statement but are occasionally lax about enforcing it. The stricter requirement of always having the 12 Month Bank Statement has been enforced in Phuket for at least three years.

By bank statement, you mean the letter one gets from the bank stating that the account is yours and the balance as of the date of the letter, rather than a Bank Statement showing all transactions occurring in an account. Correct?

Just to clarify, the 7,000 baht was deposited into your account as opening balance or were you asked to pay that amount for insurance of some kind?

All countries prefer that their citizens enter their country using their own passport. This includes Australia: https://www.passports.gov.au/news/dual-nationals-leaving-and-returning-australia-which-passport-should-you-use For the US it's a must: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/travel-legal-considerations/Advice-about-Possible-Loss-of-US-Nationality-Dual-Nationality/Dual-Nationality.html Thailand "allows" its citizens to enter Thailand on a foreign passport, but then for immigration office related matters it treats them as foreign nationals. A Thai cannot change how they entered the country after they enter the country. The only way to do that is to leave Thailand and re-enter using their Thai passport. Thais who entered Thailand on their foreign passports can apply for a one year extension of stay due to being "a Thai returning to Thailand" if they can prove they are a Thai citizen, such as showing a Thai passport or National ID card at the Thai Immigration Office. This costs the Thai citizen 1,900 baht. The Thai citizen who so enters Thailand must also report their address to Thai immigration every 90 consecutive days they are in Thailand. For all purposes related to their stay in Thailand they are subject to the same rules that people of the same nationality on which they entered Thailand are subject to in regards to immigration matters. All of which, could have been avoidable if the Thai had entered Thailand on their Thai passport. All countries prefer their citizens to enter their country on their own passport. In fact. Thais can even enter Thailand on an expired Thai passport. What Thais cannot do is enter Thailand on their foreign passport and then decide they want a mulligan and somehow magically change from a foreign national visiting Thailand back into a Thai national without leaving the country and re-entering. They can't change their immigration status while in the country. That immigration status is set when they chose which passport to use to enter Thailand.

If the cost and the amount of effort involved were exactly the same, why not?

I've been around here long enough to know better, but yes I'm a little surprised too. ???? No one can point to a single advantage of using a non-Thai passport when entering or leaving Thailand. Because there isn't one. No one can point to any cost of using a Thai passport rather than a non-Thai one when entering or leaving Thailand. Because there isn't one. And yet here we are. Perhaps people are under the impression that a Thai can enter Thailand on a non-Thai passport and then when it suits them click their heels and get all the benefits they would have gotten from entering on a Thai passport. ???? From personal experience taking my Thai friend to the Immigration Office, Thai Immigration Officers are not particularly amused when Thai passport holders show up as customers.

Because handing the Thai passport to the Thai Immigration Officer is no more difficult than handing over the Australian one. And once you do that you have no more worries in Thailand regarding anything related to immigration. I'm not Thai and so don't know the answer to this, but does the Thai Passport weigh 20kg? Simply don't understand the aversion to using it when it buys you complete freedom from any possible immigration concern while in Thailand, not to mention if the unthinkable happens and your plans actually change and you do something completely unforeseeable like wanting to stay longer in Thailand than foreigners are allowed and don't want to have any contact with immigration. Clearly, I'm missing what is so hard about using a Thai passport when you enter or leave Thailand. Are the lines longer? Do foreigners get to use special gates?

She should be able to renew in person up to one year after the expiration of her Thai driver's license without much hassle at the Land Transport Office.

My understanding is that you can be asked by police to produce it. If you have it on you then obviously it's easy for you to produce it. If you instead have paper or electronic (say on your smartphone) copies with you then you can provide the information that would be on your actual passport and often I imagine that would be sufficient. If they insist on seeing the actual passport you would need to produce that, which might involve asking someone to retrieve it from your home, for example. It's best to have copies of it on you, to avoid this unlikely possibility.

They do. However, it is very difficult to tell without looking at documentation (e.g., passport) how long one has been in the country. So, if when stopped by police you show your valid foreign driver's license and your valid International Driver's Permit, it's very unlikely that police will ask to see your passport which would show when you entered Thailand in order to calculate if you have been in the country for fewer than 90 days. Nevertheless, if there were a significant accident or other reason for the police and/or insurance companies to investigate further, I don't doubt that they could access information showing when you entered Thailand to determine if you were driving legally or not. It's worthwhile to obtain a Thai driver's license if you are going to be in Thailand for longer than 90 days so that you will be legally licensed while driving.

The best way to enter any country in the world is with the passport from that country. It doesn't get any simpler than that. There's no good reason not to do that. Plans change. People get sick. People get injured. Why in the world would you want to have any limitation imposed on your stay in a country if it could be easily avoided? It takes no extra effort to hand over one's Thai passport to Thai immigration than it does one's non-Thai passport. Also, in addition to the sufficient reason just given, don't Thais get to use automated entry gates with their Thai passport when they enter or leave Thailand? Some countries (not Thailand) make it illegal to enter the country on a passport from another country if you in fact have a passport from that country (e.g., USA). I can't imagine why anyone would even consider doing this other than not understanding which passport they should show to immigration/check-in officials.

In Phuket, you can apply for your retirement extension when you have 45 days remaining in your current permission to stay. I would apply as early as possible, meaning that you should apply 45 days or more after you received your Non-O retirement visa in Phuket. You don't state your nationality, which will impact what method you can use to satisfy the financial requirements for the retirement extension. If you are Australian, UK, or US citizen unfortunately your embassy will not issue an income letter for you. Other countries may do that for their citizens and it should be pursued if that's your case. If you cannot get an embassy income letter you will need to have 800k baht in a Thai bank for a minimum of two (2) months before you can apply for your retirement extension. The rules are basically spelled out here (for Phuket): https://piv-phuket.com/long-stay-extensions/retirement/ Note that the link appears to say that you can only apply for your retirement extension 30 days (not 45) before your current extension of stay expires. That is not the case in my experience. They have always in my case (my experience over 7 retirement extensions) allowed me to do so 45 days before the current extension of stay expires. When you go to apply for your retirement extension (at least 45 days after you received your Non-O visa, and at least 2 months after having 800k in your Thai bank account) you can expect, if all is well, that your application will be accepted on one business day and returned to you signed and stamped into your passport the next business day. This is the normal procedure at Phuket (it may sound inconvenient but it actually minimizes the time you need to hang around the immigration office). The reason you apply early is that it gives you ample time to fix any problems with time on your side rather than fighting to fix things against the clock. Whatever day you successfully apply for your retirement extension will be your retirement extension renewal date. You will be stamped in with a permission to stay of one year, expiring on your renewal date in the next year. When you go to retrieve your signed and stamped passport with your extension of stay, you can apply for a re-entry permit. The re-entry permit will be valid for the duration of your extension (that is, one year). You can leave and re-enter Thailand anytime during that period and you will be stamped in with a permission to stay until your extension renewal date (one year from your last successful extension). Cost is 1K baht for single entry, 3.8k baht for multiple entry. So, if you apply as soon as possible (45 days from today) you will get a renewal date of approximately October 28. You get the re-entry permit (suggest doing this the next day when you pick up your passport) and then can leave Thailand on November 16 and return next year January 18. You will be stamped in with permission to stay until 28 October 2023 (or whenever your extension renewal date is).

I miss the retired emoticons for this reason: Someone can post a barrage of misinformation involving many postings and while eventually they are responded to correcting the misinformation (often many posts later) there is nothing to mark their original posts as utter nonsense (such as the sad or confused emoticon, for example). This detracts from the usefulness of the thread. There really isn't a controversy whether immigration has minimum balance requirements for the retirement extension money in the bank method. Nor is it unknown whether immigration checks whether you complied with these requirements when you apply for your next retirement extension. Someone following the "advice" in these completely wrong posts (that aren't marked in any way) would be extremely ill-served.

Had my last eyeglass shipment from Zenni to Thailand about six months ago. The following is from their website: https://ca.zennioptical.com/help/?a=Shipping-and-Returns-FAQ---id--y1agLQHsTCi9W-3Y8ykQoQ

You only need two covid vaccinations in most cases (only one in the case of Johnson & Johnson) to travel anywhere in the world, as far as I am aware. You can approach the place where you got your vaccination certificate with that certificate and your two passports and apply for the certificate to be issued with your other passport. In Thailand your vaccination information should be registered with the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH). There is a Mor Prom app available which will allow you to request a new international vaccination certificate. It would allow you to put in a different passport number (as I have done this) and probably also a different nationality. The golden rules of passports: 1) always exit a country using the passport with which you entered it. 2) always use the passport of the country you are entering, if you have it. 3) always show only one passport to immigration officials. Show the proper one that respects rules 1 and 2. 4) always show only one passport to airline check-in staff, according to rules 1 and 2. If asked show the other passport as well to indicate that you can enter your destination country without a visa (as you have a passport from that country).

Depending on the Land Transport Office some will accept a yellow house registration book (tabian bahn) in lieu of the residence certificate from immigration.

It's even harder if you are an American citizen because the US government has decided to outsource all sorts of compliance responsibility to foreign banks for tax matters. There's nothing you can do about that except to be cooperative and easy to deal with as the bank attempts to comply with the requirements the US government has imposed on them. Be the kind of customer you would like to deal with if you were working at the bank. Provide the information and fill out the IRS forms without a lot of complaining and eye-rolling. They will want to know your social security number, for instance. They are not the instigators of these questions they are just carrying out the orders of the US government. Make it as painless as possible.

Try Krungsri Bank, Bangkok Bank, and Kasikorn Bank. You can probably improve your odds if you obtain a residence certificate from Phuket Immigration. They will ask 300 baht for the certificate. The Bangkok Bank branch I would try is on Rat-U-Thit Road in Patong, on the left side, just before you arrive at Jungceylon. There is a lot of discretion in opening an account for a foreigner especially one not on a long-term visa/extension. Sometimes they will decide to open the account for you if you also purchase insurance from them at the same time. PA 1st Accident Insurance (Smart or VIP policy) from Bangkok Bank is not a terrible deal as it covers accidents while on a motorcycle. Finally, if after trying on your own unsuccessfully at a number of different branches you could consider using the services of an agent.